Coming home one evening from a post-office run, I felt the steering on my Elite getting very stiff; and, as suspected, when I [barely] managed to get into the garage and parked, I found a low front tire.
It turned out that the rim was defective - a dent and rust had let air leak from the tubeless tire.
After removing the front wheel and disassembling the rim from the center "spider" [containing the brake and speedometer drive] I asked my local repair guys to see if they could find a rim for me.
Since the old tire was a Tiawanese model with [probably] 5,000 miles on it, I also ordered a new tire - and decided it should be a whitewall, even if it cost a few more $$.
As it turned out, that wasn't a great idea. There's the tire; and it's a Continental.
But --
sigh -- it's also a tube-type tire. These are made for scooters
with 2-piece rims, like Vespa and Lambretta.
OK - so it has to go back for a replacement.
My eBay search was successful; I snapped this one up at the "Buy-it-now" price of $28.00 + S&H of $12; $40.
Coming from a San Francisco company that ships only on Wednesdays, it was more than a week before the rim arrived via FedEx.
Meanwhile, I rode
4 wheels (ahem -- with air conditioning!)
The used rim was in good condition, but had minor surface rust and some crud that had to be removed before refinishing. After the rim was scrubbed throughly with alcohol it was inspected for damage. Whew -- none!
Those spot welds [arrow] are a particular worry. Rust under the brackets that hold the wheel-center assembly will grow in any area - like these - if it contains microscopic bits of welding residue or burned steel.After the cleaning and sanding was done, Extend was brushed into the spaces between the bracket and the rim. (If you use the link to this product, you'll have to search for it because their clever Website won't permit links to inside pages.)
I'm glad that capacitor-discharge welding doesn't use flux, which causes bad rust and corrosion problems!
When you only have
2 wheels, you can't afford to ignore a problem with one of them!
I wire-brushed and sanded [100 grit, 2 inch squares - folded over several thicknesses - using fingers only] all of the rim's surfaces. Wiping everything with alcohol several times removed as much dirt and grease as possible.
Then I used an old toothbrush to swab the rusty places with Extend to kill the rust before painting.
The inside of each bracket was also sanded to remove any dirt or corrosion so that the "spider" can be replaced. If you haven't taken one of these apart, you might be surprised at how hard it is to remove and replace that 3-legged spider.
Special care was given to the tire bead seat to assure that it was smooth and clean. A piece of 250 grit sandpaper was folded into a 2" pad and applied by fingertips -- no power tools!
All of the built-up rubber, sealant, rust and dirt seen at left, must be removed leaving only clean steel or the tire bead won't make an air-tight seal.
The cleaned, sanded, "rust-proofed" rim was given one coat of bright aluminum [Rustoleum "Bright Coat Metallic Finish #7715] paint. I was going to try their Chrome #7718, but the can label warns "not for outdoor use." Rustoleum's Website is here.
Note that per Extend's instructions this is an oil-based enamel paint.
You will have to take my word for it -- no power tool was used, and only light brushing and sanding was needed before finishing. About an hour's time in all.
The bead-seat on the rim is smooth, and there is no corrosion build-up left in the three brackets, the bases of which are well coated with Extend to convert any hidden rust. Combined with the aluminum paint that should prevent future rusting.
Removing the crud from the inside of the brackets made it vastly easier to re-install the wheel's center spider!
A Michelin S83 3.5 x 10 tire was mounted, and I'm riding again in style!